The One With Travel Guides & Resources To Ilulissat, Greenland

In writing up my blog posts on my trip to Greenland, I realised I dig through my travel knickknacks and compile a useful lists of tour agencies, restaurants, hotels, accommodations, and tourist attractions in Ilulissat. While I can’t vouch all these information will be accurate when you read this, but I hope this will serve as a starting point for you research into useful travel information on the beautiful Ilulissat.

This is the agency we used for the midnight sun excursion. It’s a large outfit, with much bigger boat and better facilities, and the crew seems friendlier, though you’ll be sharing all these with a much bigger tour group. This is also the only boat you can take shelter inside when the wind outside gets too much for you… and trust me, it can be biting cold.

A smaller outfit headed by an Italian man named Silver. Silver has been in Greenland for over twenty years, so he has much stories to tell. Ask him about how he came to Greenland, fall in love with the missus, and never leave again. The tour group is much smaller, around 12, and the boat is also much smaller. There’s a personal touch, that’s all I am saying. We went with Silver for our Ilimanaq Tour.

Arguable the largest Greenlandic buffet in town, and you’ll need advanced reservation to get a table here. The hotel is old school and well maintained; it is not unlike a Russian restaurant. This was where I had my first taste of polar bear (it’s smoked meat, didn’t like it), whale curry (tasted like chicken) and all sorts of seafood to last you a life time. Can’t remember the price but it’s ok great value. A must-eat.

It was a great experience at Ulo Restaurant. And a great shame. Great experience because the food was truly Michelin-grade, complete with some of the best service I have ever encountered, but great shame because we were too rushed for time to finish our 7-course tapas. But I would recommend this restaurant with no hesitation. The experience certainly deserves a separate blog post on its own. No wonder the restaurant, which can sit some 100 patrons, were packed.

Exploring Around & Attractions

To be honest, Ilulissat is much more of a nature spot. You’ll do well exploring the hiking trails and taking boat cruises to see what make Greenland so magical. Anyway, here are some recommended tourist spots in Ilulissat when you had enough of nature for the day.

Ilulissat Art Museum

P.O. Box 715, Ilulissat 3952, Greenland

This is a very small museum dedicated early twentieth-century oil paintings of the Greenlandic landscape. The best of these images can be found on postcards and posters sold in the museum shop. Talk to the curator, we had a whale of a time learning about why Greenlandics are so very friendly, the “tough” life in Greenland, and the best times to visit.

Open Air Museum

I can’t remember how I chanced upon this open air museum, but it seems to be part of a bigger museum, probably the Knud Rasmussen Museum. The museum showcases buildings, tools and crafts depicting the ongoing live cycles in Greenland, measure in winters and summers. Take the time to read the descriptions – they are poetic and beautiful, and make you appreciate the museum installations you are seeing.

This was the hotel we stayed at during our days in Ilulissat. It’s rather conveniently located (then again in Greenland, this is all relative), and you get great view of icebergs from the terrace and restaurant. The hotel is clean and new, staff very friendly. Internet is charged separately; though you can buy them in blocks, and use the minutes over a couple of days. There’s a restaurant here where you get breakfast as well; food is mediocre. I’ll go for breakfast but not anything else. If you are going hiking, they provide packed breakfast for you too as meals while you are on the road. Go for it, it’s great value and you WILL need it.

I visited Hotel Arctic because of Restaurant Ulo (see “Eating Out”), and I promised myself the next time I am back in Ilulissat, I must stay here. There are these igloo-like metal domes located outside the hotel building, which looks out to the setting sun and a sea of icebergs. It was literally breathtaking. The terrace is large and equipped with many lawn chairs and benches for leisurely smoke and sipping pints. All these combined will make a stay at Hotel Arctic a magical experience. I want to be back!

Comments

Hey Amy. All the tourist boats offer shelter of course – its quality and size will depend on which agency you are going with. But most people will spend time outside the “shelter” in the bitter wind to see what they paid for: gigantic icebergs. It’s worth the deep chill!

Hi! I stumbled onto your blog while looking for reviews on tour operators in Ilulissiat. I am visiting in August this year and is trying to decide between WoG and Tourist Nature for their boat tours but can't decide. May I ask which gave you a better experience overall? also, which was more reliable since I will be booking months ahead and hope tours will not be cancelled (other than for weather reasons and other such natural reasons) when I arrive.